Y2K was a major scare that took place in the world sometime before the sunrise of the 21st century - people were afraid that the computer system would go rogue so drastically that it would either cause nuclear war or bring the world back to the 1900s in terms of technology, which might as well have been true - there was almost a nuclear disaster in 1983 when there was a computer glitch that claimed the United States had launched a nuke towards the Soviet Union. Thankfully Stanislav Petrov was there to save the world from utter doom but alas, we can't all have a Petrov in our lives, especially not the Americans.
This is a timeline that explores what would've happened had Y2K been much worse, so worse that it would've caused World War III, and what would've happened in the aftermath, as new nations arise and old nations struggle to survive the new world.
Point of Divergence[]
Awareness of Y2K doesn't emerge in the 1990s, resulting in significantly less preparation for such an event by all major powers. As a result, the Y2K bug turns out to be much more chaotic, shutting off lights, televisions across the eastern hemisphere. However, the real crap starts in Russia.
Nuclear detonation in Los Angeles at 8:29 am (UTC-8), 31 December 1999
The first nuclear missiles to launch come from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, with the missiles landing in the western coast of the United States, destroying several cities such as Los Angeles and Olympia. Bill Clinton, the American president, is informed of the nuclear strikes and is quickly rushed to the White House to contact the military. Without the knowledge of Y2K in TTL, Clinton - upon the advice of his Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki - assumes it was a direct Russian attack, and starts preparing his military for retaliation.
News of the tragedy reaches the world, as NATO is alarmed by the sudden Russian attack, and they start immediately mobilising across the borders. Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, is shocked at the incident, and attempts to call Clinton to settle things, but Clinton - holding an emergency Congress meeting - isn't available, but instead Sandy Berger, Clinton's National Security Advisor, answers, and refuses to listen to Putin, stating that he intentionally attacked the United States to start a war. Meanwhile in Congress, the decision to declare war has been approved, and Clinton officially activates Article 5, starting World War III between NATO and Russia. Putin, believing the incident was a false-flag operation conducted by the Americans, goes along with war.
Around the same time, Chinese nuclear missiles are also launched due to computer errors, nuking Taiwan, Japan, further US territories in the Pacific, India and other nations. The United States and NATO ultimately declare war on China as well. Indian nuclear missiles are launched towards China and Pakistan, resulting in the beginning of a renewed conflict among the three nations.
Contributors[]
So far, only invited people can join this TL.